As has been noted every couple of minutes or so on Fark for the last few years the right moving right after Clinton moved to the center in the 90 shifted the Overton window to such a degree that positions were once held by mainstream Republicans are now held by Dems. The onslaught of the Tea Partiers in 2010 moved the GOP even further right a trend that continues to this day.

That all noted, what specific reasons would a former WSJ reporter and writer of books about the military have for identifying with the left?

*clicks link*

The Iraq war fiasco? The torture scandal? The use of lawless mercenaries? Intelligence officials run amok? Growing income equality?

The guy spent 25 years covering the military and politics, and he never figured out that it's just one party pretending to be two parties, or that its goal is total control? He doesn't know that torture has been official US policy (at least) since the creation of the OSS (later the CIA), which smuggled some of the most vile Nazis (see: Klaus Barbie) out of Germany after WW2 so that we could learn the science of torture from them, or that we even continued some of their most evil research (mkultra, mkdelta, artichoke, etc.) and applied it (phoenix, etc.)? And, yet, the guy made enough money in journalism to afford a summer house in Maine.

My grandparents were upset that Social Security and Medicare were now being considered 'entitlements'. They would defend the programs all while denouncing Obama and the liberal media and the evil liberals in Congress. With a straight face.

Uh huh. That's what happened. Last I checked, if you don't whip out your John Birch Society membership card as soon as somebody yells, "SEGGERGAYSHUN NAH-OWWWW SEGGERGAYSHUN FOH-EVUH!!!!', you're "THE LEFT."

skyotter:the fact that these are seen as Right-vs-Left issues depresses me profoundly.

they're Right-Wrong issues, as in "torture is wrong. full stop."

Well, blame the right for that. Whenever you're against something they support, they see you as being on the left and therefore "wrong".

Granted, some of the left do that as well; hell, I've done it on occasion and had to check myself realizing that the person opposing the viewpoint I support wasn't someone on the right, but on the left as well.

Nadie_AZ:My grandparents were upset that Social Security and Medicare were now being considered 'entitlements'. They would defend the programs all while denouncing Obama and the liberal media and the evil liberals in Congress. With a straight face.

But that's what entitlements always have been. You've paid into them and you're entitled to the benefit...*scratchy head* I've never understood why people consider 'entitlements' a bad thing.

whidbey:No, "the left" did not go "authoritarian." "The left" have little if any power in this country.

While the whole "both parties are the same" and "we only really have one party" talk is BS, there is a little validity to what he said in that many of Democrats at the top of the food chain are authoritarians and/or are more than happy to sell out the interests of the people in favor of corporate interests.

On average Democrats are demonstrably better for this country, but it doesn't help to pretend that we don't have any house cleaning to do.

As has been noted every couple of minutes or so on Fark for the last few years the right moving right after Clinton moved to the center in the 90 shifted the Overton window to such a degree that positions were once held by mainstream Republicans are now held by Dems. The onslaught of the Tea Partiers in 2010 moved the GOP even further right a trend that continues to this day.

That all noted, what specific reasons would a former WSJ reporter and writer of books about the military have for identifying with the left?

*clicks link*

The Iraq war fiasco? The torture scandal? The use of lawless mercenaries? Intelligence officials run amok? Growing income equality?

Yeah, those are some pretty good reasons.

This. For the last 30-40 years, Republicans have defined the political center as wherever they're standing at any particular time. And for at least the last 20 years, they've been moving further to the right, always demanding that the Democrats meet them in the middle, except that's no longer the middle.

By pandering to the radical right, the Republicans normalized the radicals and radicalized the normals. Thus, the simplest, most sensible solutions like universal healthcare and alternative energy become "too extreme" for the nation.

In the 60s and 70s, protecting and preserving the environment was something everybody agreed on. Now, it's a "far left" idea. The slogan "Don't mess with Texas" referred to this environmental movement.

In 1976, disgusted with The Movement, and the New Left, I joined the seminal Libertarian Party. I stopped donating to the party in 88, when they nominated RON PAUL!!, and left the party and registered unaffiliated in 2006.Now, I find myself voting almost entirely for Democrats, with an occasional exception.I don't think I've changed my views that much. The aging of the boomers, and their predominance at the polls has moved this country far, far to the right. We are into bad, dangerous, Weimar Republic territory.So, people are starting to push back, and the pendulum will swing - that's how political history is written.

gadian:Nadie_AZ: My grandparents were upset that Social Security and Medicare were now being considered 'entitlements'. They would defend the programs all while denouncing Obama and the liberal media and the evil liberals in Congress. With a straight face.

But that's what entitlements always have been. You've paid into them and you're entitled to the benefit...*scratchy head* I've never understood why people consider 'entitlements' a bad thing.

Because they're scared that someone else might get the big piece of chicken or two scoops of ice cream to their one.